Altss vs PitchBook vs Preqin vs Dakota: Which LP Database Wins in 2025?

Fundraising in 2025 is a different sport than it was even three years ago. LP mandates shift faster, private wealth has become a global force in venture capital, and institutional allocators adjust exposures more frequently in response to market cycles.

For emerging managers, lean IR teams, and cross-border funds, the core challenge is no longer simply finding LPs. It is identifying who is active right now, how to reach the decision-maker directly, what they invest in today rather than last year, where warm paths exist, and when to time outreach for maximum conversion.

Legacy LP databases were built in an era of slower-moving information. But fundraising in 2025 is increasingly shaped by freshness, verified routing, and relationship context. The tools that win are the ones designed around those realities.

This article takes a clear, balanced look at five widely used platforms — Altss, PitchBook, Preqin, Dakota, and FINTRX — and where each fits inside modern fundraising workflows.

TL;DR

PitchBook is the benchmark for private-market deal intelligence and company research, but it is not designed for real-time fundraising signals or LP outreach execution.

Preqin remains strong for institutional benchmarking, historical allocator behavior, and structured fund/LP data, but it is slower on near-term activity and role-change routing.

Dakota is a proven choice for U.S.-centric institutional fundraising, especially for teams living in Salesforce and relying on curated allocator coverage.

FINTRX provides family office data with a research-oriented approach, but teams often supplement it with signal-driven tools for timing and routing.

Altss is built for allocator signal intelligence: real-time activity detection, global private-wealth visibility, relationship context, and verified decision-maker contacts — optimized for outreach timing and conversion.

If your goal is market research, PitchBook and Preqin are often core. If your goal is U.S. institutional execution in Salesforce, Dakota is hard to ignore. If your goal is family office research, FINTRX is worth evaluating. If your goal is fundraising velocity — timing, decision-maker access, warm paths, and global reach — Altss is purpose-built for that workflow.

Raising a Fund I or Fund II? Read the tactical guide: Best Database to Use While Raising Fund I VC in 2026 →

The Fundraising Reality in 2025: Speed Wins

LP behavior is more dynamic than at any point in the last decade. Teams raising capital report three consistent challenges.

Allocator mandates change quickly. CIO transitions, board-level adjustments, liquidity events, or macro-driven rebalances can shift a program's approach far faster than most databases reflect. A family office that was actively deploying into climate tech six months ago may have paused entirely due to a generational transition. An institutional LP that seemed dormant may have just received a new allocation mandate. Understanding the LP decision cycle matters more than list size.

Verified, direct contacts determine success. Generic inboxes and stale contacts waste weeks in a fundraising cycle where timing matters. This is especially true for teams doing cold outreach into institutional LPs and family offices. A bounced email is not just an inconvenience — it signals to allocators that your research is shallow. Verified routing to the actual decision-maker, not the general contact, compresses timelines.

Relationship context is now a core advantage. Warm paths, shared history, co-investments, and network overlap increasingly determine who gets the meeting first. This is particularly true in private wealth, where routing often depends on trust rather than formal intake processes. The GP who can identify a shared connection or reference a relevant co-investment gets prioritized over the GP who sends a generic deck. Understanding the allocator decision chain — who actually influences the check — matters as much as identifying the firm.

In short, static data has become a liability. Fundraising now requires current, outreach-ready allocator intelligence.

PitchBook: The Deal Intelligence Benchmark

PitchBook has earned its place as one of the most comprehensive private markets databases. The platform is especially known for M&A transaction data, valuations, competitive intelligence, company profiles, and market analytics. For deal teams, corporate development professionals, and market researchers, PitchBook is often indispensable.

Its LP dataset exists and is established, but the platform was built primarily for analysts, deal teams, and research workflows — not for high-velocity fundraising execution.

IR teams often note specific characteristics. Update cycles follow broader research rhythms rather than real-time allocator behavior. Workflows emphasize firms and deals more than allocator timing or investment mandate shifts. Contact-level information varies depending on disclosures, and real-time behavioral signals are limited.

This is not a criticism of PitchBook — it is a reflection of what the platform was designed to do. PitchBook excels at market intelligence. It was not built to answer the question "Which LPs are actively deploying this quarter and how do I reach the person who controls the check?"

For fundraising teams, PitchBook often serves as a research layer — understanding market context, competitive dynamics, and portfolio company valuations — while other tools handle allocator targeting and outreach routing.

Best for: PE deal teams, corporate development, consultants, market researchers.

Preqin: Institutional Benchmarking and Long-Horizon Allocator Coverage

Preqin remains a trusted resource among institutional allocators for performance benchmarking, allocator surveys, fund comparisons, long-horizon portfolio analysis, and historical commitment patterns. Its structured methodology is valuable for institutional analysis: consistent, comparable, and detail-rich.

If you need to understand how an institutional LP's allocation strategy has evolved over the past decade, which funds they have committed to historically, or how their performance benchmarks compare to peers, Preqin delivers. This is why consultants, institutional LPs themselves, and research-focused teams rely on it heavily.

However, Preqin is less focused on real-time allocator activity, private wealth visibility, continuous role-change routing, immediate mandate shifts, and verified outreach-ready decision-maker contact details. The platform was built for institutional analysis, not fundraising execution.

Many fundraising teams use Preqin as a foundation for understanding allocator history, then layer on more dynamic tools when they need timing (who is active now), routing (who is the decision-maker), and access paths (how to earn a meeting). The two use cases are complementary but distinct.

For Fund I managers specifically, Preqin's institutional focus can create a mismatch. First funds rarely close on institutional capital — they close on family offices, wealth intermediaries, and strategic LPs. Preqin's strengths are more relevant for Fund III and beyond, when institutional re-ups and consultant-driven processes become central.

Best for: Institutional benchmarking, LP reporting contexts, consultant-driven analysis, later-stage fund managers.

Related reading: Altss vs Preqin: Full Comparison →

Dakota: Curated U.S. Institutional Contacts and Salesforce CRM Integration

Dakota has built a respected base among IR teams focused on U.S. institutions. The platform provides curated visibility into public pensions, consultants, endowments, and foundations — organized specifically for fundraising execution rather than general research.

Dakota's strengths are clear and specific.

Curated U.S. institutional allocator coverage. Dakota focuses on the U.S. institutional market with intentional depth. For teams whose LP base is primarily domestic institutions, this focus is an advantage rather than a limitation.

Allocator webinars and ongoing updates. Weekly allocator programming helps teams stay connected to the U.S. institutional landscape. This event-driven model provides exposure to allocators in structured settings and keeps IR teams current on institutional sentiment.

Industry-leading Salesforce CRM integration. Dakota's Salesforce sync stands out. For teams operating entirely inside Salesforce, Dakota offers contact syncing, list management, allocator record updates, and compliance-friendly CRM workflows. This is particularly valuable for larger U.S. funds with established, CRM-driven IR operations where data hygiene and workflow integration matter as much as discovery.

Dakota's model is intentionally U.S.-centric. This is a strategic choice, not a gap. For teams focused on U.S. pensions, endowments, and foundations, Dakota provides depth that broader platforms often lack.

However, for global allocator discovery, family office targeting, or signal detection outside traditional U.S. institutional channels, firms often pair Dakota with complementary platforms.

Best for: U.S.-focused IR teams using Salesforce, curated institutional lists, event-driven allocator engagement.

FINTRX: Family Office Data with Research Orientation

FINTRX provides family office data with a different emphasis than other platforms in this comparison. The platform has built a dataset focused on family office profiles, investment preferences, and contact information.

Some GPs value FINTRX for its research orientation and interface. The platform provides a structured way to explore family office landscapes and understand investment patterns at the firm level.

However, in 2025 a common pattern among fundraising teams is that FINTRX is often paired with OSINT-driven systems to address freshness and routing gaps. FINTRX can serve as a research layer — understanding which family offices exist and what their stated preferences are — while signal-driven tools provide the timing layer — understanding which family offices are actively deploying now and who the current decision-maker is.

The distinction matters because family offices can change faster than most databases reflect. A profile that was accurate six months ago may have a new CIO, a shifted mandate, or a temporary deployment pause due to internal dynamics. Research-oriented platforms capture the structural picture; signal-driven platforms capture the current state.

For teams whose workflow is primarily research and qualification before warm introductions, FINTRX may be sufficient. For teams running outbound where timing and routing accuracy determine response rates, supplementing with real-time intelligence is common.

FINTRX on G2 →

Best for: Family office research, qualification workflows, teams with strong existing networks who need structured FO data.

Related reading: Altss vs FINTRX: Full Comparison →

Altss: The OSINT-Native LP Intelligence Platform

Altss represents a different category: allocator signal intelligence, designed around outreach timing rather than static compilation.

Instead of relying on slow survey cycles and periodic refreshes, Altss uses global OSINT pipelines to detect allocator behavior across public filings and registrations, organizational updates, job transitions and routing changes, investment announcements and portfolio signals, media activity and mandate shifts, liquidity events and sector movement.

The goal is not just "who exists" but who is active now — and why now.

9,000+ verified family offices worldwide. Altss offers one of the largest verified family office datasets globally, with profiles designed for outbound qualification. This includes decision-maker identification, investment focus and sector DNA, ticket size and geography, allocation cadence, and relationship context.

This matters because family offices and other private wealth allocators often move faster than institutional programs. A family office can go from first meeting to commitment in weeks. An institution often takes quarters. For Fund I and Fund II managers, where family offices dominate the LP mix, depth in this segment is not optional.

Real-time allocator signals. Altss continuously detects activity such as new mandates, strategy shifts, portfolio moves, job changes, new fund launches, liquidity events, sector pivots, and deal announcements. This signal layer helps teams time LP outreach with precision, aligned to the target's LP decision cycle.

The practical impact is measurable. Reaching a family office two weeks after a liquidity event — when they have fresh capital to deploy — produces different results than reaching them six months later when capital is already committed. Reaching a family office during a CIO transition produces silence. Reaching them three months after the new CIO is settled produces meetings. These timing dynamics are invisible in static databases but visible in signal-driven systems.

Relationship mapping at scale. Altss maps network context behind capital flows. This includes co-investments, advisor and board roles, alumni overlap, former employer connections, previous fund commitments, and cross-fund syndication patterns. Warm paths and network mapping significantly increase meeting velocity, especially in private wealth where trust-based routing dominates. Understanding the allocator decision chain — who influences the check beyond the named contact — is often the difference between a response and silence.

The relationship layer matters because fundraising is increasingly a network game. The GP who can identify that their advisor once worked with the family office's CIO, or that a portfolio company founder has a board relationship with the principal, starts conversations from a different position than the GP who sends a cold email to a generic inbox.

Verified decision-maker contacts. Contacts are deliverability-tested and periodically revalidated. This reduces bounce rates and improves outreach efficiency. For teams running lean sender infrastructure, deliverability is not a minor detail — it determines whether outreach reaches anyone at all.

AI-assisted outreach drafts. One of the largest execution gaps for lean fundraising teams is translation — turning intelligence into messages worth reading. Altss includes AI-assisted outreach drafts built on allocator signals, mandate context, and recent activity. These are context scaffolds that help GPs articulate "why this LP" and "why now," without defaulting to generic outreach.

LP-GP Connect. Altss includes LP-GP Connect — a structured discovery layer designed to help LPs evaluate managers by mandate, strategy, geography, and fund size. This addresses a recurring Fund I problem: once an LP is identified, what do you give them that is worth reviewing? LP-GP Connect is designed to shorten the gap between identification and engagement.

Pricing built for lean fundraising teams. Altss pricing is positioned to be accessible for emerging and mid-sized managers: $12,000 per year for family office coverage and $15,500 per year for full LP coverage.

See full pricing: Altss Pricing →

What Users Say About Altss

Altss receives consistently strong feedback on G2 and SourceForge.

A SourceForge reviewer described it as a "great family office database" and highlighted how easy it was to find relevant FO investors when seeking capital for a startup.

On G2, an LP described Altss as "the only LP database we actually use," emphasizing the real-time nature of updates and unusually high accuracy of contact information.

Another reviewer called it "the most detailed family offices database for personalized outreach," citing the ability to craft deeply tailored emails based on FO-specific insights.

These reviews consistently point to the same themes: freshness, organization, depth, and practical usability for real fundraising workflows.

Altss on G2 →

Altss on SourceForge →

Which Platform Wins in 2025?

Each platform wins in its own category. The question is not which platform is objectively best — it is which platform matches your specific workflow, LP base, and fundraising stage.

PitchBook wins for deal data and market intelligence. It is a research tool that informs fundraising strategy, but for LP targeting it is typically supplementary rather than primary. Many GPs use PitchBook to understand their competitive positioning, research potential portfolio companies, and contextualize their thesis within broader market dynamics. For LP targeting specifically, PitchBook is typically supplementary rather than primary.

Preqin wins for institutional benchmarking and historical allocator analysis. It is strongest for later-stage funds with institutional LP bases where re-ups, consultant relationships, and long-term allocation patterns matter most. For Fund I managers, Preqin is often useful for understanding the institutional landscape you will eventually target in Fund III or IV, but it is not the primary tool for current fundraising execution.

Dakota wins for curated U.S. institutions and Salesforce-first workflows. It provides depth and integration that broader platforms often lack for U.S.-centric institutional execution. The combination of curated allocator lists, event-driven engagement, and CRM integration creates a cohesive workflow for institutional IR teams. For teams with global LP bases or heavy family office concentration, Dakota is often one tool among several rather than the primary system.

FINTRX wins for family office research and qualification. It is particularly useful for teams who already have strong networks and need to qualify and prioritize family offices before leveraging relationships. The platform is particularly useful for teams who already have strong networks and need to qualify and prioritize family offices before leveraging existing relationships. Teams often pair it with signal-driven tools for timing and routing when moving from research to active outreach.

Altss wins for real-time LP sourcing, private wealth visibility, relationship context, and allocator signal intelligence. If your success depends on timing, verified decision-makers, warm paths, and global reach — especially in family offices and private wealth — Altss is purpose-built for that workflow. The combination of OSINT-driven signals, decision-maker routing, relationship mapping, and AI-assisted outreach creates an end-to-end system for fundraising execution rather than just research.

How to choose based on fundraising stage:

Fund I–II: family offices dominate, timing determines outcomes. Altss is often the strongest primary platform; Preqin and Dakota are more often supplementary for institutional context. The LP mix that actually closes first funds is heavily weighted toward private wealth, which means tools optimized for institutional workflows create friction rather than velocity.

Fund IV–V: institutional maintenance and re-ups become central. Preqin and Dakota can become more core; Altss remains valuable for private wealth expansion and new LP discovery. At this stage, the foundation of the raise is often existing relationships, and the tools shift toward relationship management rather than discovery.

Deal teams and market research: PitchBook remains non-negotiable regardless of fund stage. Understanding valuations, transaction comps, and competitive dynamics informs fundraising strategy even if it does not directly drive LP targeting.

Most sophisticated fundraising operations use multiple tools for different purposes — the question is which tool anchors each workflow. The wrong answer is assuming one platform covers all use cases.

FAQ

What is Altss?

Altss is an OSINT-native allocator intelligence platform built for fundraising workflows. It combines allocator signals, relationship context, and verified decision-maker contacts across family offices and institutions.

How many family offices does Altss cover?

Altss includes 9,000+ verified family offices globally with decision-maker mapping and investment focus profiles.

Does Altss include institutional LPs?

Yes. Altss includes institutional LP coverage as part of its broader LP dataset.

How does Altss collect data?

Through OSINT signals including public filings, registrations, organizational updates, job transitions, news signals, and disclosed activity.

Are contacts verified?

Contacts are deliverability-tested and periodically revalidated to reduce bounces and stale routing.

Does Altss integrate with CRMs?

Altss does not provide CRM integrations, API feeds, or CSV export. Data remains within the platform.

Does Altss map relationships and decision influence?

Yes. Altss includes relationship context designed to help teams find warm paths and understand influence patterns inside an allocator decision chain.

What is Altss pricing?

$12,000 per year for family office coverage. $15,500 per year for full LP coverage.

How does Altss compare to FINTRX?

Both cover family offices. FINTRX emphasizes research orientation; Altss emphasizes signal detection and outreach timing. Many teams use FINTRX for qualification and Altss for execution. See: Altss vs FINTRX

Why do IR teams choose Altss in 2025?

Because fundraising increasingly requires freshness, verified decision-maker routing, and global visibility — not static lists updated on slower cycles.

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